Alzheimer’s Research UK

G8 pledges to beat dementia scourge

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Tom Coppins speaks of the frustration and fear he has regarding his dementia

Leading nations have committed to developing a cure or treatment for dementia by 2025 at the G8 dementia summit.

Health ministers meeting in London said it was a “big ambition” and that they would significantly increase funding for research to meet that goal.

The UK has already said it aims to double its annual research funding to £132m by 2025.

The global number of dementia sufferers is expected to treble to 135m by 2050.

The G8 said it would “develop a co-ordinated international research action plan” to target the gaps in research and ways to address them.

Dementia across the globe

  • 44 million
    globally have dementia
  • 135 million
    will have the disease in 2050
  • By then
    71%
    will be poor and middle income
  • $600bn
    global cost of dementia
  • In the UK, cancer research gets
    8x
    as much funding as dementia

It also called on the World Health Organization to identify dementia as “an increasing threat to global health” and to help countries adapt to the dementia timebomb.

In a statement it said “We recognise the need to strengthen efforts to stimulate and harness innovation and to catalyse investment at the global level.”

Dementia is incurable and ultimately leaves people needing full-time care as brain function wastes away.

There is growing concern that some countries will simply not cope with the growing burden of dementia.

It costs the world billions of dollars each year: £370bn ($604bn) in 2010, according to the World Health Organization.

Health ministers from the G8 nations are meeting – under the presidency of the UK – to find the best ways to advance research.

Analysis

James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

Dementia is heading towards being the biggest health and care problem of a generation so you’d think it would have the funding to match. Yet it really is the poor relation of other diseases.

In the UK, about £590m is spent on cancer research with £267m coming from government. At the moment £52m of government money goes to dementia research.

It’s a pattern reflected around the world.

Part of the problem is that until recently dementia was considered a “normal part of ageing” whereas cancer has been documented as far back as ancient Egypt.

It means dementia research is starting from a low base.

The UK is aiming to double its spend, but this will still leave dementia significantly behind.

The Alzheimer’s Society says it expects more.

David Cameron called on governments, industry and charities all to commit more funding. He said the G8 should make this the day “the global fight-back really started”.

He said the UK Government would boost annual research funding from £66m, the 2015 pledge, to £132m, which will be adjusted for inflation, by 2025.

Mr Cameron told the summit: “This disease steals lives, wrecks families and breaks hearts.”

“If we are to beat dementia, we must also work globally, with nations, business and scientists from all over the world working together as we did with cancer, and with HIV and Aids.

“This is going to be a bigger and bigger issue, the key is to keep pushing.”

The health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “The amount [of money] going into research is too little.

“We would like a cure to be available by 2025. It’s a big, big ambition to have. If we don’t aim for the stars we won’t land on the moon.”

However, so far only the UK has made a definite funding announcement with the other nations committing to “a significant increase in overall dementia research”.

Mr Hunt said a Dementia Envoy would be appointed that would also help industry and charities boost funding.

‘Global leadership’

The chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, Jeremy Hughes, said: “Today the UK has demonstrated global leadership on tackling dementia.

“Dementia has come out of the shadows and is centre stage – but we must ensure G8 has a lasting legacy.

“The governments’ have all committed to updating progress on research biannually, but every month counts for the millions of people living with dementia worldwide.”

Hilary Evans, from the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This action plan is the best possible news for people living with dementia, it tells them that the world will fight for them, and that the best and most collaborative science is our greatest weapon.

“With the right investment, we can be more optimistic than ever that we will meet if not exceed the G8’s 2025 target.”

Bran scans

A dementia brain scan will also be introduced for some NHS patients with complicated symptoms.

It could help rule out Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, by hunting for damaged proteins in the brain.

A radioactive marker which binds to amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, will be injected. If there is amyloid in the brain then the tracer will show up on brain scans.

The test will initially be offered at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London and will be rolled out to other specialist centres.

What is dementia?

  • It is an umbrella term that describes about 100 diseases in which brain cells die on a huge scale
  • All damage memory, language, mental agility, understanding and judgement
  • Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form, affecting 62% of those living with dementia
  • It gets worse with time and eventually people are left completely dependent on carers
  • It is incurable

Dr Richard Perry, a consultant neurologist at Imperial, told the BBC: “For a patient who can’t get an answer using the usual tests this will make a big difference as it’ll provide clarity.

“Knowing the cause is the first step to getting treatment.”

Around 100 patients a year are expected to get access to the scan.

David Cameron: “”If we are to beat dementia, we must also work globally”

There have been a flurry of other funding announcements tied to the talks including:

  • The Medical Research Council (MRC) will commit £50m to improve treatments and delay the progression of the disease
  • The Alzheimer’s Society has promised to spend at least £100m on research in the next decade
  • A new £3m “Dementia Consortium” will unite the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK, two pharmaceutical companies and MRC Technology in the hunt for new drugs
  • The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has put up £5m improve ways of diagnosing and measure disease progression.

Meanwhile, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) plans unannounced inspections of the care of dementia patients at 150 institutions across England.

The CQC said it would look at what needed improving, how to cut hospital admissions from care homes and ways to help people with dementia maintain their physical and mental well-being.

David Behan, chief executive of the health regulator, said: “We know that these people are often vulnerable because of their condition and can rely on a number of services across health and social care to support their physical, mental and social well-being.

“Our findings will draw conclusions on a national scale about what works well and where improvements are required.”

Exercise ‘is good dementia therapy’

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elderly exercise
More research is needed to figure out the best types of exercise to recommend to patients

People with dementia who exercise improve their thinking abilities and everyday life, a body of medical research concludes.

The Cochrane Collaboration carried out a systematic review of eight exercise trials involving more than 300 patients living at home or in care.

Exercise did little for patients’ moods, the research concluded.

But it did help them carry out daily activities such as rising from a chair, and boosted their cognitive skills.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Though we can’t say that exercise will prevent dementia, evidence does suggest it can help reduce the risk of the condition as part of a healthy lifestyle”

Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer’s Research UK

Whether these benefits improve quality of life is still unclear, but the study authors say the findings are reason for optimism.

Dementia affects some 800,000 people in the UK. And the number of people with the condition is steadily increasing because people are living longer.

It is estimated that by 2021, the number of people with dementia in the UK will have increased to around one million.

With no cure, ways to improve the lives of those living with the condition are vital.

Researcher Dorothy Forbes, of the University of Alberta, and colleagues who carried out the Cochrane review, said: “Clearly, further research is needed to be able to develop best practice guidelines to enable healthcare providers to advise people with dementia living at home or in institutions.

“We also need to understand what level and intensity of exercise is beneficial for someone with dementia.”

Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer’s Research UK said: “We do know that exercise is an important part of keeping healthy, and though we can’t say that exercise will prevent dementia, evidence does suggest it can help reduce the risk of the condition as part of a healthy lifestyle.”

Eyes cells help diagnose Alzheimer’s

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Changes to specific cells in the retina could help diagnose and track the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists say.

A team found genetically engineered mice with Alzheimer’s lost thickness in this layer of eye cells.

Alzheimer's brain (left) compared with healthy brain (right)

As the retina is a direct extension of the brain, they say the loss of retinal neurons could be related to the loss of brain cells in Alzheimer’s.

The findings were revealed at the US Society for Neuroscience conference.

The team believes this work could one day lead to opticians being able to detect Alzheimer’s in a regular eye check, if they had the right tools.

“Start Quote

[This] could lead to new ways to diagnose or predict Alzheimer’s that could be as simple as looking into the eyes”

Dr Scott Turner Georgetown University Medical Center

Alterations in the same retinal cells could also help detect glaucoma – which causes blindness – and is now also viewed as a neurodegenerative disease similar to Alzheimer’s, the researchers report.

Scott Turner, director of the memory disorders programme at Georgetown University Medical Center, said: “The retina is an extension of the brain so it makes sense to see if the same pathologic processes found in an Alzheimer’s brain are also found in the eye.”

Dr Turner and colleagues looked at the thickness of the retina in an area that had not previously been investigated. This included the inner nuclear layer and the retinal ganglion cell layer.

They found that a loss of thickness occurred only in mice with Alzheimer’s. The retinal ganglion cell layer had almost halved in size and the inner nuclear layer had decreased by more than a third.

“This suggests a new path forward in understanding the disease process in humans and could lead to new ways to diagnose or predict Alzheimer’s that could be as simple as looking into the eyes,” said Dr Turner.

Alzheimer’s disease

A coloured CT scan image of a human brain
  • Symptoms include loss of memory, mood changes, and problems with communication and reasoning
  • No one single factor has been identified as a cause for Alzheimer’s disease – a combination of factors, including age, genes, environment, lifestyle and general health are implicated
  • One of the leading theories involves the formation of clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid, which damage and kill brain cells

Treatments developed for Alzheimer’s could therefore also be useful for treating glaucoma, he added.

But he also said that so far it was still speculation to say that retinal thinning may predict impending Alzheimer’s disease.

“We’re hoping that this translates to human patients and we suspect that retinal thinning, just like cortical thinning, happens long before anyone gets dementia,” Dr Scott told BBC News.

“Human studies are needed to test this idea as a diagnostic [test]. Current leading biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease are either very costly or invasive. A retinal thickness scan – as measured by optical coherence tomography – would be both inexpensive and non-invasive.”

Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease and is the most common type of dementia. The cause is still unknown and there is currently no cure. It often goes undetected for years until so many cells die that symptoms become increasingly prevalent.

But treating the disease early is believed to be vital to prevent memory loss.

Laura Phipps, at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said there was increasing evidence linking retinal cell loss to Alzheimer’s disease, and that it was “positive to see this line of research being followed up”.

“This early-stage study, which is yet to be published in full, was carried out in mice, and further research will be necessary to determine whether changes in the retina found here are also found in people with Alzheimer’s.

“Diagnosing Alzheimer’s with accuracy can be a difficult task, which is why it’s vital to continue investing in research to improve diagnosis methods,” Dr Phipps added.

Blood sugar levels could be linked to memory loss in people without diabetes – Mirror.co.uk

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Journal study finds with with lower blood sugar levels achieved highest scores in memory tests – those with high levels could suffer memory loss

People who have even slightly raised blood sugar levels may suffer memory loss, a study shows.

Researchers performed tests on 141 healthy people with an average age of 63.

None had diabetes or pre-diabetic symptoms.

But the study published in journal Neurology found those with with lower blood sugar levels achieved better scores in memory tests.

In a test to recall 15 words 30 minutes after hearing them, higher blood sugar levels were linked with poorer memory.

Lead researcher Dr Agnes Floel, of the Charite University Medicine in Berlin, Germany, said: “These results suggest that even for people within the normal range of blood sugar, lowering their blood sugar levels could be a promising strategy for preventing memory problems and cognitive decline as they age.

“Strategies such as lowering calorie intake and increasing physical activity should be tested.”

Dr Clare Walton, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We already know that Type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease but this new study suggests that higher blood sugar levels may also be linked to poor memory in people without diabetes.

“The research suggests that regulating blood sugar levels might be a way to improve people’s memory, even if they don’t have diabetes.”

Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, added: “While we do not know whether the people in this study would have gone on to develop dementia, the findings serve as a warning that we should be conscious of the impact that subtle changes in our health could have on our brain.

“Current evidence suggests the best way to keep the brain healthy is to eat a balanced diet, take regular exercise, maintain a healthy weight, not smoke and keep blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check.”

Mid-life stress ‘precedes dementia’

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stressed woman
Mid-life stress may increase a woman’s risk of developing dementia, according to researchers.

In a study of 800 Swedish women, those who had to cope with events such as divorce or bereavement were more likely to get Alzheimer’s decades later.

The more stressful events there were, the higher the dementia risk became, BMJ Open reports.

The study authors say stress hormones may be to blame, triggering harmful alterations in the brain.

Stress hormones can cause a number of changes in the body and affect things such as blood pressure and blood sugar control.

“Start Quote

Current evidence suggest the best ways to reduce the risk of dementia are to eat a balanced diet, take regular exercise, not smoke, and keep blood pressure and cholesterol in check”

Dr Simon Ridley Alzheimer’s Research UK

And they can remain at high levels many years after experiencing a traumatic event, Dr Lena Johansson and colleagues explain.

But they say more work is needed to confirm their findings and ascertain whether the same stress and dementia link might also occur in men.

Stress link

In the study, the women underwent a battery of tests and examinations when they were in either their late 30s, mid-40s or 50s, and then again at regular intervals over the next four decades.

At the start of the study, one in four women said they had experienced at least one stressful event, such as widowhood or unemployment.

A similar proportion had experienced at least two stressful events, while one in five had experienced at least three. The remaining women had either experienced more than this or none.

During follow-up, 425 of the women died and 153 developed dementia.

When the researchers looked back at the women’s history of mid-life stress, they found the link between stress and dementia risk.

Dr Johansson says future studies should look at whether stress management and behavioural therapy might help offset dementia.

Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said that from this study, it was hard to know whether stress contributed directly to the development of dementia, whether it was purely an indicator of another underlying risk factor in this population of women, or whether the link was due to an entirely different factor.

“We know that the risk factors for dementia are complex and our age, genetics and environment may all play a role. Current evidence suggests the best ways to reduce the risk of dementia are to eat a balanced diet, take regular exercise, not smoke, and keep blood pressure and cholesterol in check.

“If you are feeling stressed or concerned about your health in general, we would recommend you talk this through with your GP.”

Alzheimer’s brain scan advances

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Pioneering brain imaging that can detect the build-up of destructive proteins linked to Alzheimer’s has been developed by Japanese scientists.

_69921570_m1080569-alzheimer_s_disease-spl

It could lead to new ways of diagnosing the condition and of testing the effectiveness of new drugs.

The technology, reported in the journal Neuron, can identify inside a living brain clumps of a protein called tau that is closely linked to the disease.

Alzheimer’s Research UK said it was promising work.

Alzheimer’s disease is a problem for researchers trying to come up with a cure. The brain starts to die years before any symptoms are detected, which means drugs are probably given too late.

A diagnosis of Alzheimer’s cannot be made with absolute certainty until a patient has died and their brain is examined. It is also not 100% clear what is the cause of the dementia and what are just symptoms.

One protein, called tau, is very closely linked to the disease, with tangles of tau thought to be one way in which brain cells are killed.

The team, lead by the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, used positron emission tomography to build a 3D picture of tau in the brain.

They developed a chemical that could bind to tau and then be detected during a brain scan.

Brain scan Finding tau in the brain

Tests on mice and people with suspected Alzheimer’s showed the technology could detect tau.

Dr Makoto Higuchi, from the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan, said: “Positron emission tomography images of tau accumulation… provide robust information on brain regions developing or at risk for tau-induced neuronal death.”

The research is at an early stage, but it could eventually lead to an actual test for Alzheimer’s disease.

It might also allow researchers to closely follow the impact drugs that affect tau have on the brain.

Another protein – beta amyloid – is also linked to Alzheimer’s and can be detected in similar tests.

Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This promising early study highlights a potential new method for detecting tau – a key player in both Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia – in the living brain.

“With new drugs in development designed to target tau, scans capable of visualising the protein inside the brain could be important for assessing whether treatments in clinical trials are hitting their target.

“If this method is shown to be effective, such a scan could also be a useful aid for providing people with an accurate diagnosis, as well as for monitoring disease progression.”

Test of famous faces ‘helps to spot early dementia.

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Asking patients to identify pictures of famous people, such as Elvis Presley and Diana, Princess of Wales, may help spot early dementia, say researchers.

Doctors currently use simple mental agility tests to screen for the disease, but US experts believe a face recognition test should be used too.

A small study in the journal Neurology found it could flag up the beginnings of one type of dementia in 30 patients.

_69247083_einsteingettyafp

Trials are needed to see if it works for other forms of the disease.

The research at Northwestern University in Chicago found that people with early onset primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a rare form of dementia, struggled to identify black and white prints of 20 famous people, including John F Kennedy, Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King.

Participants were given points for each face they could name. If they could not name the face, they were asked to identify the famous person through description instead.

‘Lot of nuances’

Compared with 27 dementia-free volunteers, the 30 participants with PPA scored poorly on the famous face test.

While it is normal for anybody to forget a name or a face from time to time, failing to recognise someone as famous as Presley suggests there could be a deeper-rooted cause.

Brain scans of the participants with PPA revealed loss of brain tissue in areas that deal with recognising faces.

Tamar Gefen, lead author of the study, said it would be useful to add the test to the others that doctors use to spot early dementia.

… as would correctly identifying Albert Einstein

She said: “It could be incorporated into a battery of tests for dementia. There are a lot of nuances and differences in dementia so it is good to use different tests.”

Doctors already screen by asking questions such as “What month and season is it?”

_69242963_elvispa

The celebrity test would need to be adapted for the individual. Someone aged 45 might not be expected to recognise film stars from the 1930s, and a patient in their eighties might not be familiar with current pop stars, for example.

Dr Marie Janson, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “It’s important to be able to give an accurate diagnosis for people with dementia so they can gain access to the right care and treatments, but the different forms of dementia can be difficult to identify.

“Studies such as this could increase our understanding of the way the brain is affected by different forms of dementia, but we must invest in research if results like these are to be used to move towards better diagnosis.”

A spokeswoman for the Alzheimer’s Society said: “Tests like this could help identify rarer forms of dementia which might otherwise be overlooked.

“However, problems with facial recognition are not a symptom of all types of dementia, so more research is needed to see whether adaptations of this approach could have wider use.”

Source: BBC

 

Aspirin may ‘slow elderly brain decline’, study finds.

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An aspirin a day may slow brain decline in elderly women at high risk of cardiovascular disease, research finds.

Around 500 at risk women, between the ages of 70 to 92, were tracked for five years – their mental capacity was tested at the start and end of the study.

Those taking aspirin for the entire period saw their test scores fall much less than those who had not.

The Swedish study is reported in the journal BMJ Open.

Dr Silke Kern, one of paper’s authors, said: “Unlike other countries – Sweden is unique, it is not routine to treat women at high risk of heart disease and stroke with aspirin. This meant we had a good group for comparison.”

The women were tested using a mini mental state exam (MMSE) – this tests intellectual capacity and includes orientation questions like, “what is today’s date?”, “where are we today?” and visual-spatial tests like drawing two interlinking pentagons.

No self-medication

But the report found that while aspirin may slow changes in cognitive ability in women at high risk of a heart attack or stroke, it made no difference to the rate at which the women developed dementia – which was also examined for by a neuropsychiatrist.

Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “The results provide interesting insight into the importance of cardiovascular health on cognition, but we would urge people not to self-medicate with aspirin to try to stave off dementia.

“The study reports no benefit from aspirin on overall dementia rates in the group, and previous trials investigating the potential of drugs like aspirin for dementia have been negative.”

Dr Kern added: “We don’t know the long term risks of taking routine aspirin. For examples ulcers and serious bleeds may outweigh the benefits we have seen. More work is needed. We will be following up the women in this study again in five years.”

Source:BBC